Online Search will never be the same again.

a.?????Background Note:

I spent a bit of time checking out the new Chat-enabled Microsoft Bing Search (on iOs Mobile) and I should say this is an entirely new & differentiated layer of search experience.

Mind you, I happened to skip the ChatGPT testing bandwagon when it released late last year (I did not have a need for it then) and wishfully hoped for some real-world application(s) that might be relevant for me.

And “search” is exactly that; I happen to be a heavy user of search, both in my personal & professional space (for curiosity in the former & in research for strategy formulation in the latter). And Google was indeed my go-to place for this.

But let’s be honest with ourselves here, we did not have a better choice, whether by chance or design (or purely habit, perhaps).

1.?The algorithm-based web crawler and its ranking mechanism (in Search) coupled with a comprehensive acquisition strategy across the digital ad-space seemed to offer the so-called tech giant a dominance that was near monopolistic. When you are an auctioneer, you have a huge say in setting the market price for a product (Digital Ads in this case). The timing (with IOT going mainstream across the world) was great, too.

2.?We always seemed to understand, yet somehow forget – this was an advertising solutions provider masquerading as a Tech business. A player with an exorbitant privilege of near monopoly in key verticals.

Did Google build great products? I’m not so sure, but it sure as hell acquired a lot of them (and rebranded them, ofc).

b.????My “Bing” experience:

?You can imagine my interest when Microsoft announced the new Bing. The (detailed) information took about 3 weeks to trickle down to my end; I joined the wait-list 3 days ago, got the access last evening, and spent some time testing it; with the idea of sharing my story in case it felt worthwhile. It did, and thus, this write-up was brought into existence.

In plain words (for “non-techies” like me), what the Bing team has done is to marry the prompt-based LLM technology exemplified by ChatGPT with the massive universe called Search (in traffic, significance & ad-revenues), coupled with UI & better validation enhancements. But it’s beyond just that.

The new Bing, contrary to a search tool or browser add-on, is a bit closer to a virtual assistant that has a personality and has something which its predecessors didn’t – a longer working memory that better optimizes for “Context”. It’s way more “conversational” than anything I’ve seen before, perhaps even better than some human customer service execs I’ve interacted with.

It does not just depend on unidirectional (from your side only) prompts, it prompts you back with specific questions intended to either narrow down or even expand your intent, something that traditional search simply cannot match. You can’t even begin to quantify the benefits along the “relevancy” axis for search.

At times, though, I did feel that this is still a work in progress:

1.?The UI seems a tad slow when I was playing in the rewards section hungrily,

2.?There’s some confusion about whether you need just the “bing” or “bing on edge” app to execute “write text” commands,

3.?An audio prompt to search for “the best Shawarma in Toronto” took me on a journey to find the best Shower mat in the city. (But hey, maybe I have an accent. Or maybe there are no decent Shawarma joints in TO. One wonders),

4.?There are certain points where the chat-bot has just gives up and asks you to move onto the next topic by selecting “New Topic” (but there is no New Topic button) and instead you have to select the Cleaning Brush to clear the existing chat. I’m guessing this is due to memory constraints (resource allocation on the GPU aspect, more on that later).

The Rewards system is most interesting; you get to accumulate points as you use the tool and there are also a few contests & quizzes that you can participate in to gain bonus points. The points can either be donated/gifted, or exchanged for gift cards from the Microsoft product umbrella or its partners.

I have to admit – to see this evolution of search come with a mechanism where a user gets rewarded (essentially, a margin element of the company’s search business) is simply amazing. A lot of people talk Web 3.0. Here’s a tech evolution that brings it to life.

c.?????Why I feel this will change the Search space:

1.?There is no real “cost of switching”, at least for now. In fact, switching is easy, and the experience you have is so markedly better than what you had before; there’s no incentive to go back. Even when I jump into Google search to run a query I end up asking questions the way I would chat on Bing, but get the old sub-optimal experience.

2.?Traditional search is heavily dependent on keyword bidding and associated parameters. I feel that Bing search (or similar offerings) is more related to intent than ever before. But this does come with a high cost, though. I’ve seen industry notes describing that the average cost of a Chat-assisted search is way higher than a traditional search (for the engine/provider). For example, it seems a search on Bard (Google’s alternative to the new Bing) costs the company 10x more than traditional search. This primarily comes with the use of the GPU asset(s) and additional power required.

3.?I am inclined to agree with what some industry experts have predicted - the Gross Margin in the Search business would drop significantly as user adoption of a Chat-assisted Search engine took off. And for the moment, the talk is around an Ad-supported/funded model but I’ve not seen anything definitive on it yet.

4.??What does that mean for advertisers? Well, if the search engine (publisher in this case) wishes to keep the same % of margin as before – this would entail that the ad-spend would need to increase significantly. It would be immature to express this as rise in CPCs & CPAs – I feel the entire pricing & buying model in search would need to change.

But hey, if Microsoft decides to take the hit on the margin as a business decision, and have the resources to do so, then it’s a great incentive for advertisers wanted to reach early adopters of the new Bing.

5.?The rewards system is an important space to watch. (Try it and see, it has a great Gamification element). I strongly feel the possibility of integrating this with ads, offers, collectibles, loyalty programs etc is endless.

d.????Conclusion – why the best is yet to come:

The rollout of the Chat-assisted Bing seems to be the first of many such innovations to Microsoft’s product portfolio- the company has made it clear that similar integration would follow for the MS office suite of applications and beyond. I hope it "enriches" productivity as opposed to increasing it; I believe the world needs more of better things, not a lot of things.

There are risks associated with any technology adoption. But we must be judicious when assessing such risk. Here are 2 arguments and counter arguments for consideration:

1.?Argument: Some folks would use the technology to commit something bad.

Counter: There are folks who already use existing technology to do bad things. You cannot only blame the technology for that.

2.?Argument: But, the scale of the damage that the new technology causes will be far higher.

Counter: Yes, possibly, but this ignores the fact that its not the only the “bad” that the technology enables; it enables the “good” too. To focus only on the negative is a bit myopic.

I believe the scales are balanced here.

There’s a great phrase that the MS team uses when talking about Bing search. They call it your “co-pilot” for the Web. Sure seems to be heading that way.

Footnotes:

1.?Disclaimer: The thoughts & opinions expressed are my own, in my personal capacity and have nothing to do with any terms of employment – past, current or future.

2. This is a piece that I penned; and not AI generated in any manner, except for the platform testing & research. Still, there is no such thing as original content, especially in the information age. Inspiration credits go to the thing we call the Internet.

3. Sources - just Bing whatever questions you have, and judge the results.